Swift action by off duty Cwm Taf nurse helped to save pensioner’s life

Nurse Trudy Jones’ swift action while on a shopping trip helped to save the life of an elderly woman who had collapsed in the street.

The nurse specialist with Cwm Taf University Health Board told how she performed CPR on the stricken pensioner for around 20 minutes until paramedics could transport her to hospital by ambulance.

Now Trudy has heard from the woman’s friends that she is recovering after two weeks in hospital where she had been on a ventilator.

Doctors and paramedics told her that the prompt treatment had been crucial in the patient’s survival.

“Instinct kicked in really, and I acted on adrenaline,” Trudy said. “I just wanted to know afterwards what had happened to the lady. I was relieved more than anything to hear from her friend that she was getting better and was conscious and talking.”

Trudy’s day job is as a nurse specialist working in safeguarding children and she is quite often behind a desk.

But her nursing training helped her to cope in a life or death emergency.

“I was on a shopping trip with friends to Bristol and as we got back to the bus I could see a couple of friends ahead sitting with a woman in the floor,” Trudy said. “I went over and I couldn’t hear any breathing so I put her on her back and started CPR. A single paramedic arrived and I was able to help and I carried on until a full ambulance crew arrived, about 15-20 minutes.”

When the ambulance left, Trudy, 46, and a mother of two grown up sons, got on her bus to go home to Porth in Rhondda.

A few days later she awoke to find she had become a social media sensation as a friend of the woman had been trying to contact her on Facebook, wrongly believing she was from Merthyr Tydfil.

Trudy’s friend Karen Thomas had posted: “Just found out that one of my best mates has probably saved a lady’s life whilst we were waiting to come home from a shopping trip on Saturday… I am so proud of her I think I’m going to cry. You were amazing Mrs Jones.”

Trudy said: “People were saying on Facebook that it was me and well done. I was more embarrassed than anything but relieved to hear that the lady was recovering.

“When contact was initially made with the lady’s friends – who I now know is called Margaret and from Neath – they could only tell me that she was very ill but alive.

“It was only last week that she was taken off the ventilator and able to take sips of water. Her daughter has been in touch with me to say that she is recovering but slowly. She thanked me from the bottom of her heart and said she will keep me informed of her mother’s progress.”

Lesley Lewis Head of Nursing said: “Trudy is a valued member of our nursing team who always tries her best to help people often in difficult circumstances. Trudy’s instincts are always to help and focus on doing the right thing. The team are really proud of Trudy and her swift actions.”